Bengaluru hospital drives 640 donors to register for organ donation

Marking the celebration of World Organ Donation Day, a city hospital launched a drive that encouraged its entire staff to register for organ donation.Sreemoyee Chatterjee | TNN | Updated: November 27, 2015, 22:48 IST

Bengaluru: Marking the celebration of World Organ Donation Day, a city hospital launched a drive that encouraged its entire staff to register for organ donation. 640 donors in Manipal Hospitals came forward to pledge support to this noble gesture.

Dr Sudarshan Ballal, Chairman of Manipal Hospitals, said: "For organ recipients, transplant is a second chance to life. Transplantation can bring back a patient from death bed to normal lifestyle. The act of donation can save up to 8 individuals and has the ability to comfort grieving families. We thank each and every member who has come forward to extend their support for a noble cause."

"Each year thousands of people die in India waiting for an organ transplant due to lack of a suitable organ. These people die in spite of facilities which exist in India to perform transplantation. The organ donation rate in India is abysmally low at only 0.05 per million populations compared to western countries. Organ donation saves lives and the need for organ donation has never been greater. As on November 2015, 1600 patients for kidney, 534 for liver and 34 for heart are awaiting transplantation in Karnataka. Most of these patients will not be fortunate to receive an organ on time due to lack of donors" said Dr Ravichand, chief liver transplant surgeon at Manipal Hospitals.

Only in India the healthcare financing is very small when compared to the financing by the other forces rather than the patient himself or herself paying out of pocket. Having 70-75% of the expenses as out-of-pocket, in my opinion, is not a right approach to managing healthcare in a country where the patients tend to sub-optimally purchase healthcare if he/she has to pay out-of-pocket.